


Her Own Words

by kuroiyousei



Series: November Quick Fics [12]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon Setting, Gen, POV: Miscellaneous (Yaten), Pining, Songfic, psychological torment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-09-28 01:31:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17173286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroiyousei/pseuds/kuroiyousei
Summary: Yaten’s lyrics reflect her internal struggles.





	Her Own Words

With some surprise Seiya took the paper Yaten held out, and skimmed it. Yaten didn't write lyrics often, so it _always_ came as something of a surprise. She supposed she could have handed the sheet over more gracefully, too, than with nothing beyond the grumbled name of a currently popular song with a similar meter. 

Seiya started to hum as she neared the bottom of the page, and Yaten, observing she'd caught the working melody, turned away and moved to the widow seat, where she drew her knees up to her chin and stared somewhat sullenly out the dark glass. In these male bodies, Seiya alone of the three of them had a soloist's voice, which Yaten blatantly resented since she'd loved to sing back on Kinmoku. Now it was backup or embarrassment, and though Yaten often chose the latter, Seiya was really the only one that could do a dry run of a new lyric. 

Taiki, who'd arrived in time to hear the name of the song Yaten had mentioned and then taken her customary place at the keyboard, now played a few introductory chords. 

"Two notes lower," Seiya requested. 

Taiki frowned as she did a quick and somewhat difficult mental transition, played a few more chords to get the feel of the new key, and paused. 

"And there's a bridge I'm going to have to improvise," Seiya added. "Maybe just drop out when I get there." 

Taiki nodded, fingers poised on the keys, and Seiya started the run-through. 

_Once this gentle heart of mine gave birth to so much love,_   
_But with the ending of my world I had to lock it up,_   
_Wrapped in starry scarlet like the glitter of your hair,_   
_Surround myself in marble as I struggled not to care._   
_But can you blame me?_   
_Can you blame me?_

_I feel it every time._

Of course they each had an image, a specific niche they filled in the band: Seiya the bad boy, the show-off; Taiki the scholar, the aloof and dignified; and Yaten the hard-hearted, the _cold_ -hearted, the bitch. She knew she had a following, a specific set of fans of this persona that went starry-eyed every time she rudely refused to take a picture with the groupies or made some overly harsh comment in an interview. 

And this song would be a calculated risk, representing as it did a shift in that persona, but Yaten thought it would pay out by solidifying that part of the fanbase without a lot of interaction with them on her part. She was pretty sure most of them already believed her to be so seemingly unfeeling because of some great tragedy in her past. They were right, of course, but their vapid imaginations went no farther than 'loss of girlfriend...' which was exactly what these lyrics would be taken as confirmation of, sending most of the hiding-his-broken-heart-Yaten contingent into paroxysms of pity and passionate love. And those that legitimately liked her because of her perceived unkindness were the type of people she didn't want as her fans anyway. 

Not that she wanted _any_ fans. 

_And it's not your fault for leaving,_   
_But if you came back you'd fix everything._   
_Please return to me,_   
_And return me to the me I used to be._

It had been different once. On Kinmoku or on the moon that had been her particular domain under Kakyuu's rule, Yaten had been happy to share her music, when she had time, with everyone around her. She'd been pleased to have admirers that appreciated her talents. She never would have refused anyone a picture or made overly harsh comments back then. But that had been before every single one of them had died. 

Here on Earth she looked out over a sea of humanity and tried to pretend she neither liked nor cared about them. It didn't _quite_ work -- and every time one of them had a Star Seed taken, she literally ached -- but she was able to present this frigid front to save herself, and part of that was denying her fans. Fans that might well be multiplied by this song when they realized it was only unbearable pain that had made her so cold. Oh, joy. 

_Though I've tried to block it out, I always feel their pain,_   
_But these angry, fisted hands may never heal again._   
_Somewhere past my cruelty I'm longing to be kind,_   
_But when everything is gone, what's left to do but hide behind_   
_The walls I'm building?_   
_These walls I'm building..._

_I feel it every time._

When she _did_ write lyrics, she tended to put her heart and soul into them; none of her songs were fictional as so many tended to be. As such, when performed or even recorded, they always included the psychic message the trio desperately hoped would bring Kakyuu back to them. Of course the band came up with a decent number of more mundane pieces -- they had to fill up their concerts and albums somehow, and it took a lot out of them if _every_ song sent the broadcast -- and Yaten dutifully orchestrated them and played bass and sang harmony as needed... but, though she put plenty of artistic energy into them, those songs didn't mean a thing to her. The trio had one mission, one goal, one purpose that swallowed up everything else; she couldn't afford -- and had no desire! -- to get caught up in other nonsense. 

And the rest of the band business? The signings and the sponsoring events and the advertising contracts and the interviews? That was even purer nonsense than the casual music required of them by circumstance. She considered it nothing very worthy of censure to give very little effort to _that_. 

It wasn't as if she needed anyone around here to respect her work ethic anyway. Though perhaps, deep down, in the part of her that lived in the past on a now-barren world, she might have liked them to. 

_And it's not your fault I'm alone now,_   
_But if you found me I know I'd know how_   
_To say I'm sorry,_   
_And return me to the me I used to be._

All this drama with the local Sailor Senshi had made her feel worse than ever. That Sailor Moon, like their own princess, had the power to restore phage to human form, to restore stolen Star Seeds, cut like a knife into the breast of one that had sensed so many of her own people disappear forever at the hands of Shadow Galactica. Of course Kakyuu would have saved them if she could, but, wounded and defeated, hadn't been given that choice. That someone else out there had the power to prevent all that death and suffering, but hadn't been present to do so, hurt so badly it was almost a catalyst to draw out all the emotions Yaten was so industriously repressing. 

And that Sailor Moon clearly _wanted_ to help, had been the one to insist in the first place they heal the phage instead of simply destroying them... that was so close to unbearable Yaten simply refused to think about it. Not only because it represented a missed opportunity, however remote the chances, but because healing... 

No, she would _never_ consent to join forces with Sailor Moon and her handmaidens. Never. Let them heal their own world, since they oh-so-fortunately still had the power to do so. Or fall to Galaxia, for all Yaten cared. 

_I feel it every time:_   
_Every sorrow and hurt._   
_They reach out to me, and I turn away without a word._   
_Are you reaching out too?_   
_I swear I feel you near._   
_I know the type of me you'd prefer..._

Kakyuu was out there somewhere. And 'out' perhaps wasn't even the right term; Yaten could absolutely sense her somewhere on this planet, somewhere in this _country_. The others couldn't -- at least not nearly so strongly -- which was why Yaten herself had led them here, and at first she'd looked down on them for that. In her newly forged emotional withdrawal and harshness, she'd disdained her fellow soldiers for lacking her adeptness in one particular area. 

But she was past that now. They had their own skills, as she'd known all along and had eventually come to accept even through the walls and the bitterness. It was impolitic in any case to demand more of them, or to blame them for working in their own ways alongside her when that work was more important than any individual's strengths or weaknesses. 

Would she ever see her princess again, though? Every time she thought about it, a dull ache she simply couldn't push down throbbed through her. Where, _exactly_ , was Kakyuu? What was she doing? Dying of her wounds, or biding her time? Working toward some goal, or just slowly healing? 

And did she fail to respond to their desperate songs because she didn't feel it safe to do so, or because she didn't hear... or because they had changed so much she no longer wanted or needed them? 

Yaten refused to think about it. Just finding her... that would be enough. 

_And it's not your fault I'm broken,_   
_But if I saw you I'd be whole again._   
_Please don't forget me,_   
_And return me to the me I used to be._

She didn't like what she was. That was one truth of the song: she wished she could be other. In reality she didn't think she could go back to her former self, because she couldn't unsee the horrors she'd witnessed on Kinmoku and on her moon, and she couldn't unfeel the pain of her princess' flight to this unknown world. And it would take some doing even just to unwrap the layers of unkindness she'd used to hide from everyone she might have loved. 

But if she could grow from the experience into a better, gentler, stronger version of her old self... couldn't she better serve her princess that way? Perhaps someday she could even heal again... if only she could find her... 

And until then, the walls. The marble. The near-complete insensitivity. 

_We'll be together. I'll find you._   
_I won't stop searching past the stars and the moon,_   
_Through the galaxy,_   
_For my princess and the me I used to be._

That last chorus... Yaten wasn't quite sure about it, and would probably cut it. Too many of their songs already used the word 'princess,' and eventually even the most thick-headed fan had to wonder why the Three Lights _all_ seemed to be obsessed with someone they called by that name. The imagery of stars and moon was also repetitive of similar wordings in other pieces, and, though it was difficult to avoid, it did get old after a while. 

Beyond that, the attitude seemed a little... optimistic. After all, perhaps, as Yaten had reflected before, Kakyuu didn't _want_ to be found. Perhaps she was on a mission of such importance she'd considered it expedient to shed everything that might hold her back, including her own soldiers. Or perhaps she didn't even recognize them in their young men's bodies. 

Yaten stared down at her boy's hands as Seiya finished singing. This was another thing she hated. The others often seemed fairly comfortable in their bodies, but Yaten never was. The only time she felt physically right was when she transformed. Just another thing to hate about herself and the contingencies of the mission they were on. 

Seiya went over the bridge again, experimenting with a different melody without accompaniment. Then she tried one of the verses a little slower than before, making it sound even more soulful in her smooth voice. Yaten fought a prickle of tears behind her eyes as her own words, her own deepest thoughts and the pain that prompted them, poured out of her comrade's mouth. 

Finally Seiya ceased singing all together. Yaten's gaze shifted to where she could see Seiya's reflection in the window, and, observing her frowning slightly over the paper, Yaten frowned as well. And Seiya asked, "Don't you think some of this is a little obscure for a boy band?" 

"No more obscure than most of Taiki's lyrics," Yaten almost snapped back. 

"That's true," Taiki admitted. Gently she added, "I think they're excellent lyrics, Yaten." 

Seiya's reflection nodded. "We'll have to find a different melody, of course, but this'll make a great song." 

Almost against her will, Yaten smiled faintly. Because she knew they'd suffered very much as she had, changed in their own ways as she had in hers. Because she knew that by 'excellent lyrics' and 'great song' they meant, _"We understand every word; we're with you in pain and in hope."_

Because where she'd previously had fellow servants of a higher authority from different moons, barely even acquaintances, she now had sisters -- or perhaps brothers -- with the same name, the same goals, the same trauma. 

She swiveled in the window seat and stood. "Let's practice something else," she said airily, as if none of this mattered, and headed to pick up her own instrument. 

And maybe she would keep that last chorus in after all.

**Author's Note:**

> An anonymous Guest gave me a November Quick Fics 2018 prompt full of interesting thoughts about Yaten too extensive to transfer here, and I came up with this. I think I hit most of the points.


End file.
